Overview

It was the match-up of the century: four sleuths - Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard; Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, famed writer of detective stories; Colonel Race of His Majesty's Secret Service; and the incomparable Hercule Poirot - invited to play bridge with four specially invited guests, each of whom has gotten away with murder! For the host, the mysterious Mr. Shaitana, it was to be a clever entertainment. But before the first rubber was completed, the host himself was dead......

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Overview

It was the match-up of the century: four sleuths - Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard; Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, famed writer of detective stories; Colonel Race of His Majesty's Secret Service; and the incomparable Hercule Poirot - invited to play bridge with four specially invited guests, each of whom has gotten away with murder! For the host, the mysterious Mr. Shaitana, it was to be a clever entertainment. But before the first rubber was completed, the host himself was dead...

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Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is nearly synonymous with upper-class British mysteries, for good reason. She set the standard for the genre in over 60 novels and dozens of short stories, also creating two classic detectives: the fastidious Belgian, Hercule Poirot, and English spinster Jane Marple. No one could match Christie's knack for weaving clues into her stories, then turning the whole thing inside out -- shocking her readers every time.

Biography

Agatha Christie is the world's best-known mystery writer. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language, and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her writing career spanned more than half a century, during which she wrote 79 novels and a short story collection, as well as 14 plays, one of which, The Mousetrap, is the longest running play in history. Two of the characters she created, the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and the irrepressible and relentless Miss Marple, went on to become world famous detectives. Both have been widely dramatized in feature films and made-for-TV movies. Agatha Christie died in 1976.

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A Nice Twist on the Locked-Roo Mystery

What is often enjoyable about Christie novels is how willing she is to make her job difficult. She can make tricky situations--"And Then There Were None" is a particularly stellar example--that the normal author could never write his or her way out of, and then finesse a unforseen, yet perfect resolution.

This book is no exception; the victim is murdered in a locked room that contains four others, all four of whom are suspected by the victim to have "killed before." He is alive at the beginning of the evening of bridge playing, and dead at the end--stabbed by one of these four people. The extra twist is that there are four more guests, in another room--four "detectives:" Hercule Poiret, Ariadne Oliver (Christie's semi-autobiographical character,) Superintendent Battle (star of several of Christie's lesser-known mysteries,) and Colonel Race, a not-very-much-sketched-out secret service-type who appears mostly to bring the detective total up to four--one for each suspected murderer.

It's another enjoyable book, and the ending is satisfying, with a good journey to get there, but the constant switching back and forth as to who is stated as the killer gets a little tiresome, with particularly egergious examples near the end. The almost purely "little grey cells" nature of this detecting, with Poirot finding the killer based mainly on the way the bridge game was played, is excellent, so if you prefer the more-logical side of Christie's book, this is a must-read.

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Anonymous

Posted June 4, 2009

Different from most Poirot mysteries.

This is a great Agatha Christie novel, as usual. The characters are in their regular eccentric form, Poirot is his arrogant Belgian self, but there is one difference from the norm. The crime that is committed doesn't have as many tangible clues as you would usually see. It's much more psychological. Maybe not my favorite by Christie, but still an interesting read.

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One of My All Time Favorites

"Cards on the Table" is one of my all time favorite Agatha Christie books. The characters are well written, the plot will have you guessing till the very end. It is yet another A.C. book that I will reread for many years to come.

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Anonymous

Posted October 28, 2003

Where's Hercule ???

For a book that features Hercule Poirot as the main character I kept wondering when he would show up in depth. This book is very slow and repitious to develop. It is less Hercule and more about the surrounding characters. It's an OK read, but not much more.

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Anonymous

Posted February 27, 2003

Cards on the table

Agatha Christie Cards on the Table Murder, Mystery Someone has murdered Mr.Shanta! Don't worry Hercule Poirot is here. This is a book that will make you grip your covers and sit at the edge of your seat. The invitations have been sent; but there is a horrible surprise in store for the seven guests. Miss Agatha Christie has done it again with another bone chilling, spine tingling novel featuring Hercule Poirot. Miss Christie brings Hercule Poirot alive in front of your very eyes with her great talent to add in every detail possible. Every character she uses is so different that it is amazing how well she can put them all in one novel. Hurcule is the wittiest lad they have at Scotland Yard and he has a job to crack the case of "cards on the table." He is also the main character in other of her books. While reading the book I thought of a text-to-text connection; it is when they made a movie about one of Agatha Christie¿s books called Murder on the Orient Express when a murder has been made on the Orient Express. Hurcule Poriot is the detective also in this book as well many others. Although this is a very good novel some of the vocabulary is very challenging. And sometimes hard to under stand the text and dialogue so in order to totally follow the book you must reread some parts, and be a reader who can ¿get inside the book.¿ But that won¿t be hard since you won¿t want to put the book down.

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Anonymous

Posted July 14, 2002

Killer Strikes During Card Game!!

Dago Shaitana has a very interesting hoby. He collects people who have gotten away with murder and he invites Poirot to come and meet them.He arrives and finds Mrs.Oliver,Superintendent Battle, and Colonel Race have also been invited.If you notice Shaitana has invited four sleuths and four murders. During a card the sleuths and murders go into different rooms to play cards. Shaitana sits in the room where the murders are playing and by the end of the evening he is dead, murdered.Shaitana's dangerous hoby has finnally cought up with him but which of card players killed him? The answer may lie in the position of the cards on the table.

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Anonymous

Posted November 26, 2001

Reading the book so far... It is an Outstanding Book!!

I have just read the book and the book is Outstanding!! I try to observe the 4 suspects and see 'whodunit' but I can't pick out the murderer. Cards on the Table brings you many twists and turns and I know at the end Christie is going shock me with who the murderer is! Well I'm going going to continue reading and when I finish I'll give you my overall review of the book

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Anonymous

Posted September 27, 2001

Unusual,Would come in top 5!

A wonderful plot though unusual. Four suspects and a victim and of course Hercule POirot. And man, what a way of catching the murderer. I would rate it in Christie's top 5. Neatly written with twists and turns.

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Anonymous

Posted March 9, 2001

Wonderful

I've just read this book and it's wonderful. It's full of twist and turns, and right when you think you know, your wrong! A wonderful deciver!

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Anonymous

Posted July 27, 2000

Baffling!

This is a VERY unusual book. Every time I thought I knew the answer, I had to change my mind. What a great challenge!

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Anonymous

Posted May 1, 2000

Cards on the table

i love the fact that their are more than one detectives in the story. You wonder if that will make the story easier to solve. Agatha will not let that happen. Instead, the novel is even more difficult to unravel. Have fun!!

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